2023-06-25 42 -88

Location

Along some train tracks in Crystal Lake.

Participants

Tarasaurus

Plans

Take the trains there!

Expedition

Rainbow people heading to Pride

The area near the hash point

This point appeared to fall on a service road along the rails, just a short distance away from the Crystal Lake train station. I've never been to Crystal Lake but I like taking train journeys so I obviously had to go. Sundays have fewer trains running so I made sure to get up early to head out since missing a train could mean a two hour wait for the next one. To my surprise when I boarded the first train of the day it was actually quite crowded for a Sunday. Most of the people seemed to be wearing rainbow clothing of some kind or another, and suddenly I remembered! Chicago was having their big Pride event today! It made me happy to be on a train full of LGBT people like myself, and it certainly made for the most colorful train ride I've ever had.

Once in Chicago I walked the few blocks over to Ogalvie Transportation Center and got directly on board the train out to Crystal Lake. I spent the ride admiring the various types of architecture out the window and arrived around 11am. The walk over to the geohash was pretty quick and unremarkable, but once I arrived at the tracks nearby I was nervous about how to proceed. Generally speaking, being anywhere near railroad tracks is considered trespassing and the rail companies all have their own police forces specifically for patrolling and keeping people away from their tracks. However, a gravel service road ran along the tracks here, and it had zero signs about trespassing posted, so I reasoned that it was perfectly reasonable for me to walk down the service road to the geohash. As long as I had my phone out, if anyone stopped me I could just say I was following my GPS app and didn't know I wasn't allowed there. So I began my approach to the hash with the plan that I would go in quickly, get my proof, and leave right away.

The gravel was a little damp from overnight rains, so I walked along the edge of the service road where it was firmer. I quickly reached the area alongside the hash, which was near some equipment boxes and some metal beams laying on the grass. I walked around the beams to the edge of the brush and checked the Geohash Droid app. 18 feet (5.5m) to go. Hmmm, I really didn't want to walk into the brush. Even though at this spot it was only about shin high I could tell the ground began to drop off at some point here so there was a good chance I would slide down and end up waist deep in unknown plants. Not being particularly good at identifying poison ivy I wanted to avoid contact with the plant life as much as possible just in case. There happened to be some fallen tree branches next to me, so I climbed onto them, and maintaining my balance as best I could, shuffled forward a bit and leaned my phone out as far as I could.

Sylvie's grin back at the road

A day full of rainbows

14 feet to go (4.2m). Darn. I was hoping this was going to be quick.

I retreated back to the service road to reconsider my options, and took a couple photos of the hash area. I really didn't want to come all this way to fall just a few feet short, nor did I want to get my legs covered in poison ivy. So I decided to make one more attempt at the tree balancing act. I climbed back onto the branches, shuffled my way forward, and leaned out. Still 14 feet away. I shuffled more. I leaned more. I stretched. I nearly fell. Finally a welcome sight, the app turned green! 11.7 feet (3.5m) happened to be just slightly inside the GPS margin of error which is what I use as my definition of reaching a point. Perhaps only my fingertips were within range of the point but it counts nonetheless. I got my proof and hastily retreated back to the main road for the hashscot photo.

After that precarious success I returned to downtown Crystal Lake to check out their shops. Of course most of them were closed because it was Sunday. I really need to get a good train geohash on a Saturday some time. I particularly liked the look of the retro bowling alley in town, and was delighted to find a flag store full of rainbow pride flags. I ate some lunch while I waited for the next train back to Chicago at a place called Georgio's, which was Chicago transit themed inside. It felt appropriate given that I was taking public transit all day. On the pair of trains home I was surrounded by more rainbow flags and rainbow wearing people. Then as we passed through a small rain storm and into the lowering sunlight, I turned and looked behind our train. Sure enough, there it was, an actual rainbow. I can't think of a better conclusion to such a colorful day. Happy Pride Chicago.